Evan Dorkin writes animals better than most writers write people. I mean that two ways. The animals of Burden Hill have such clearly recognizable voices and personalities & Dorkin accomplishes a lot of their characterization in a very few pages, making his furry sleuths as immediately sympathetic and endearing as the animals I remember from
Homeward Bound. But even if you ignore the fact of their four legs & look at them each on a basic character level, they're still more completely developed on an individual basis than many human characters on the comic stands today. I get more out of two panels of
Beasts of Burden than I do out of two full issues of
Joe the Barbarian, and that's resident deity Grant Morrison. So Dorkin is impressive.
And Jill Thompson is phenomenal. She has this classic-looking watercolor painted style - I don't know enough about art to say exactly what she uses, maybe it'd be obvious to someone with art smarts, but whatever she does, it looks delightful. The art almost has a kind of 40's Disney feel - it's cute and cartoony, but it's also amazingly detailed and expressive. So everyone looks totally cuddly and adorable, instant love.
And then somethin
g comes along, say, a giant frog, and devours some hapless pup and then the giant frog regurgitates its own insides and then the giant frog explodes into tiny regular frogs after the Burden Hill gang tears out its tongue, severing its spiritual anchor. You know, 'cause it was an aggregate demon. The giant flesh-eating frog. Aggregate. Demon.
Oooh riiight,
Beasts of Burden is really about a crazy fucking crew of paranormal animal detectives investigating
X-Files-level insanity in the picturesque & sinister town of Burden Hill. Fucking awesome. Four issues out so far, and a couple stories printed back in those hardcover Dark Horse
Book of the Dead anthologies. Aggregate demon frog!
Missed this the first time around.
Very glad I picked this one up, last minute grab before I checked out. I was initially attracted by Ben Templesmith's name. I like his sketchy, jilted pencils and murky, dark, moody finishes. He doesn't disappoint here. Nice touch with the "How It's Done" art tour at the end.
Joe the Barbarian does not read well as individual issues. The same could be said for a lot of what Grant Morrison writes. I don't know if that's a criticism or not. Every time I want to be snarky about Morrison, I remember how fucking awesome he can be. Everyone's got their favorites of his; I like Seaguy, Doom Patrol, and We3. Two issues in, I don't like Joe the Barbarian. After eight, chances are I will.
I like this issue. Not because it's any good because, by god, it's not. I like it because it lets me know it's okay. It's okay not to buy every comic that has a number in a red shield on the cover. I probably won't miss too much. It's okay to not buy every comic with "Super" in the title. They're probably not all necessary anyway. It's okay to not buy Supergirl because she is, after all, just a girl. Okay so that's not right.
Wow, this is a surprisingly dark issue for a Johnny DC all-ages book. Still righteous, but dark nonetheless. It's Valentine's Day and Batman & Huntress are tailing a maniacal Mr. Camera, who is actually pretty creepy in a demented paparazzo stalker kind of way. Huntress is distracted, and we follow Bats in assuming it's due to her unrequited V-Day love ("Gotham City is my mistress. Fighting crime is my romance." So perfect).
Noooo! Stay away, Geoff Johns! Don't do it! Oh, fuck my cock. He did it.
Evan Dorkin writes animals better than most writers write people. I mean that two ways. The animals of Burden Hill have such clearly recognizable voices and personalities & Dorkin accomplishes a lot of their characterization in a very few pages, making his furry sleuths as immediately sympathetic and endearing as the animals I remember from Homeward Bound. But even if you ignore the fact of their four legs & look at them each on a basic character level, they're still more completely developed on an individual basis than many human characters on the comic stands today. I get more out of two panels of Beasts of Burden than I do out of two full issues of Joe the Barbarian, and that's resident deity Grant Morrison. So Dorkin is impressive.
g comes along, say, a giant frog, and devours some hapless pup and then the giant frog regurgitates its own insides and then the giant frog explodes into tiny regular frogs after the Burden Hill gang tears out its tongue, severing its spiritual anchor. You know, 'cause it was an aggregate demon. The giant flesh-eating frog. Aggregate. Demon.
Weee! I love this book. Except for the Red Robin title and costume. I mean I get why Tim is rocking the moniker, but I can't wait until he gets his own identity. How fucking cool was Nightwing? Tim needs that.
Diggle & De La Torre's takeover of DD has been pretty seamless so far - if you weren't paying attention to the credits, you might just see #504 as more of the same gloriously gritty underworld machinations. Diggle's writing is just as taught & compelling as Brubaker's, and it looks like his plans for the title are even more epic. I love the idea of Matt using the Hand to police the police & Kingpin's plot to play his enemies against each other - I mean I guess that doesn't sound shockingly original, but the execution has been delightful.
